Executives come up with new strategies all the time. Some are good, many are fair, and some are downright poor. How do you know the difference? Three McKinsey & Co. strategists-Chris Bradley, Martin Hirt, and Sven Smit-came up with 10 questions to test your strategy.

 

According to a 2010 McKinsey survey of 2,135 global executives, few strategies (about one third) can pass even three of the tests. How well would your company's strategy do? Take the test and find out. While there are ten tests, not all of them are equally important and the authors of the tests say a strategy can succeed without passing all of them. Here are the ten questions that should start a conversation the next time your strategy or your company's strategy is up for discussion:

Charlie Feld's been around IT for a long time-44 years to be exact, starting at IBM in 1966. He was the CIO of Frito-Lay in the 1980s and started his consultancy, the Feld Group, in 1992 (purchased in 2004 by EDS, became part of HP in 2008, and is now independent again). After his stint at Frito-Lay he became known for a framework for IT-enabled business transformation that he created while there.

 

Now he has a new book, "Blind Spot: A Leader's Guide to IT-Enabled Business Transformation ," that updates that framework to deal with the issues that IT and business leaders are grappling with today. In an interview with strategy + business released last week, Feld talks about the book, what he's learned and the ideas he now espouses.

If you're a frustrated CIO struggling to get your company's business side to embrace IT as a critical strategic partner rather than just a cost center, the answer may lie in altering your approach to IT strategy. In the current issue of the journal Strategy +Business from management consultancy Booz Inc., Booz consultants Eduardo Alvarez and Srini Raghavan have one idea: a four-step road map based on the company's corporate strategy and the capabilities it delivers.

 

One would be hard pressed to find any CIO who doesn't believe in and argue for IT's ever-growing stature within the organization. New Research from Harvard Business School, however, suggests a surprising new angle on the power CIOs really have to influence the way their companies run.